This is a blog exploring the intersection of Christianity and the American legal system.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age

As mentioned in the prior post, I
became aware of Ms. Crawford’s book recently when I caught part of Moyers & Company where she was
interviewed.It was a fascinating
dialogue and I look forward to reading her book.

To begin, I think Ms. Crawford’s
title is fascinating.The concept of a
new gilded age with monopolies, dramatic disparities in standard of living, and
unfettered power of the rich is one that seems to be discussed more and more in
recent years. I will elaborate on that concept in a coming post.

However, beyond references to a “new gilded age,” Ms. Crawford several
raises interesting points.She notes the
monopoly that internet and cell phone carriers enjoy.She describes the economic disincentives such
monopolies create to upgrade the existing infrastructures to give us all
faster, more reliable services. She compares internet and cell phone service to
traditional utilities to argue for more government involvement to ensure more
widespread access to these services that have become so important to modern
life.

Ms. Crawford observes that the United States really helped
create these modern communication technologies, but through complacency and
governmental neglect, we as a country have really fallen behind.She gives specific information of how other
industrialized countries have made internet and cell phone access an
infrastructure priority.Such countries
recognize that cheaper, faster, widespread access is critical to economic
development.We thus risk falling behind
in terms of economic development because we don’t have such infrastructure.

Moreover, beyond economic issues, Ms. Crawford also makes a good
argument that such access is also becoming critical to a functioning democracy
since technology has become more the norm for modern communication.She points out that those who don’t have
access to those communication media are shut out of participation in civic
discourse.

Luke 9:46-48

They started arguing over which of
them would be most famous. When Jesus realized how much this mattered to them,
he brought a child to his side. “Whoever accepts this child as if the child
were me, accepts me,” he said. “And whoever accepts me, accepts the One who
sent me. You become great by accepting, not asserting. Your spirit, not your
size, makes the difference.”